Predicting Romantic Interest at Zero Acquaintance: Evidence of Sex Differences in Trait Perception but Not in Predictors of Interest

We evaluated five competing hypotheses about what predicts romantic interest. Through a half‐block quasi‐experimental design, a large sample of young adults (i.e. responders; n = 335) viewed videos of opposite‐sex persons (i.e. targets) talking about themselves, and responders rated the targets' traits and their romantic interest in the target. We tested whether similarity, dissimilarity or overall trait levels on mate value, physical attractiveness, life history strategy and the Big Five personality factors predicted romantic interest at zero acquaintance and whether sex acted as a moderator. We tested the responders' individual perception of the targets' traits, in addition to the targets' own self‐reported trait levels and a consensus rating of the targets made by the responders. We used polynomial regression with response surface analysis within multilevel modelling to test support for each of the hypotheses. Results suggest a large sex difference in trait perception; when women rated men, they agreed in their perception more often than when men rated women. However, as a predictor of romantic interest, there were no sex differences. Only the responders' perception of the targets' physical attractiveness predicted romantic interest; specifically, responders' who rated the targets' physical attractiveness as higher than themselves reported more romantic interest. Copyright © 2017 European Association of Personality Psychology     

The Effect of Expected Value on Attraction Effect Preference Reversals

The attraction effect shows that adding a third alternative to a choice set can alter preference between the original two options. For over 30 years, this simple demonstration of context dependence has been taken as strong evidence against a class of parsimonious value‐maximising models that evaluate alternatives independently from one another. Significantly, however, in previous demonstrations of the attraction effect alternatives are approximately equally valuable, so there was little consequence to the decision maker irrespective of which alternative was selected. Here we vary the difference in expected value between alternatives and provide the first demonstration that, although extinguished with large differences, this theoretically important effect persists when choice between alternatives has a consequence. We use this result to clarify the implications of the attraction effect, arguing that although it robustly violates the assumptions of value‐maximising models, it does not eliminate the possibility that human decision making is optimal. © 2016 The Authors Journal of Behavioral Decision Making Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.     

不同胜任力水平下大学生自谦归因对他人评价的影响

从人际吸引力和胜任力评价两个维度探讨大学生自谦归因对他人评价的影响。以120名大学生为样本,采用2*2的组间情景实验设计,让被试观测情景材料中不同胜任力水平个体的自谦归因后作出评价,研究发现,不同胜任力水平下大学生自谦归因对人际吸引力和胜任力评价上存在交互效应,当材料中大学生胜任力水平高时,自谦归因能提高大学生的人际吸引力。然而,当材料中大学生胜任力水平低时,自谦归因不仅不能提高人际吸引力,反而减少了他人对大学生的胜任力评价。     

A closer look at first sight: Social relations lens model analysis of personality and interpersonal attraction at zero acquaintance

Based on a new theoretical framework—the Social Relations Lens Model—this study examined the influence of personality on real‐life attraction at zero acquaintance. A group of psychology freshmen (N = 73) was investigated upon encountering one another for the first time. Personality traits, attraction ratings and metaperceptions were assessed using a large round‐robin design (2628 dyads). In line with our model, personality differentially predicted who was a liker and who expected to be liked (perceiver effects), who was popular and who was seen as a liker (target effects), as well as who liked whom and who expected to be liked by whom (relationship effects). Moreover, the influence of personality on attraction was mediated by observable physical, nonverbal and audible cues. Results allowed a closer look at first sight and underline the importance of combining componential and process approaches in understanding the interplay of personality and social phenomena. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Contextualizing rape: Reviewing sequelae and proposing a culturally inclusive ecological model of sexual assault recovery

Consistent evidence demonstrates that many women who encounter the trauma of rape experience a range of both acute reactions and chronic psychological sequelae. This article reviews both the short- and long-term psychological adjustment issues associated with rape. In addition, we propose a culturally inclusive ecological model of sexual assault recovery (CIEMSAR), which integrates and extends existing models to better examine the complex factors leading to differential postrape adjustment. Important components of the CIEMSAR are placing rape in the broader sociocultural context of the United States and explicated socioracial and ethnic factors influencing the recovery process. The five primary factors of CIEMSAR are outlined, including (a) macrosystem or sociocultural context factors; microsystem/individual factors such as (b) assault characteristics, (c) person variables, (d) coping responses; and mesosystems factors such as (e) social-support systems. Suggestions for future research are also provided.     

An intermediary enhances out‐group trust and in‐group profit expectation of Chinese but not Australians

In this research, we made a theoretical distinction between direct and intermediary‐mediated trust situations, and conducted a cross‐cultural (Chinese vs. Australians) investment trust game to test the overlooked effects of an intermediary on investors' trust decisions, with respect to how much to invest in and expect from trustees. Compared to situations of direct trust, a nominal intermediary increased the number of Chinese investors expecting in‐group trustees to repay a profit on their investments (Hypothesis 1) and raised their level of investment in out‐group trustees (Hypothesis 2). These results applied to Chinese, but not Australians in support of the proposal that a nominal intermediary would serve as a cue to activate different cultural stereotypes of the functions and meanings of an intermediary with respect to trust and expectation of reciprocity. Coexisting with these culture‐specific effects of an intermediary, the minimal categorisation of people into in‐group and out‐group on trivial grounds leads to a highly significant in‐group favouritism in investment levels of both Chinese and Australians (Hypothesis 3).     

Do Americans Have a Preference for Rule‐Based Classification?

Six experiments investigated variables predicted to influence subjects’ tendency to classify items by a single property (rule‐based responding) instead of overall similarity, following the paradigm of Norenzayan et al. ( 2002 , Cognitive Science), who found that European Americans tended to give more “logical” rule‐based responses. However, in five experiments with Mechanical Turk subjects and undergraduates at an American university, we found a consistent preference for similarity‐based responding. A sixth experiment with Korean undergraduates revealed an effect of instructions, also reported by Norenzayan et al., in which classification instructions led to majority rule‐based responding but similarity instructions led to overall similarity grouping. Our American subjects showed no such difference and used similarity more overall. We conclude that Americans do not have a preference for rule responding in classification and discuss the differences between tasks that reliably show strong rule or unidimensional preferences (category construction and category learning) in contrast to this classification paradigm.     

Blame contagion: The automatic transmission of self-serving attributions

When people blame others for their mistakes, they learn less and perform worse. This problem is magnified when blame becomes embedded in the shared culture of groups and organizations. Yet, little is known about whether—and, if so, how—the propensity to blame spreads from one person to another. Four experiments addressed this issue, demonstrating that blame is socially contagious: observing an individual make a blame attribution increased the likelihood that people would make subsequent blame attributions for their own, unrelated, failures (Experiments 1, 2, and 4). Results also indicated that this “blame contagion” is due to the transmission of goals. Blame exposure led to the inference and adoption of a self-image protection goal (Experiment 3), and blame contagion was eliminated when observers had the opportunity to alleviate this self-image protection goal via self-affirmation (Experiment 4). Implications for research on causal attributions, social contagion, and cultural transmission are discussed.     

Building Kinship and Community: Relational Processes of Bicultural Identity Among Adult Multiracial Adoptees

To read this article's abstract in both Spanish and Mandarin Chinese, please visit the article's full-text page on Wiley InterScience ( http://interscience.wiley.com/journal/famp ).
This study uses the case of transracially adopted multiracial adults to highlight an alternative family context and thus process of African American enculturation. Interpretive analyses of interviews with 25 adult multiracial adoptees produced 4 patterns in their bicultural identity formation: (1) claiming whiteness culturally but not racially, (2) learning to "be Black"—peers as agents of enculturation, (3) biological pathways to authentic Black kinship, and (4) bicultural kinship beyond Black and White. Conceptualizing race as an ascribed extended kinship network and using notions of "groundedness" from bicultural identity literature, the relational aspects of participants' identity development are highlighted. Culturally relevant concepts of bicultural identity are proposed for practice with multiracial adoptees who have multiple cultures of origin and for whom White mainstream culture is transmitted intrafamilially as a first culture.     

The English public space: developing spirituality in English Muslim schools

Developing a language and a context for a spirituality that can speak to children and young people in a post‐modern, secular English society is a challenge for anyone, parent or teacher, who wishes to raise the vision beyond the purely material and the everyday. The challenge is both epistemological and pedagogical. How young people see, know and describe the world in which they find themselves is central to any school curriculum. For English Muslim schools the epistemological and pedagogical interfaces with the cultural and theological in a search for a language and spirituality that is a reflection of a contemporary English Islam.